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Russia's had enough: no more 'business as usual' with US

OWON: When Lavrov fires a warning shot to America they really need to listen. With a 5 minutes nuke warning from Subs, or 18 minutes by ICBMs, Russia really does have the upper hand in conflict. This is long but his speech is longer. Whether one agrees with his position or not, Lavrov is one of the great statesmen of our time. Pity there are not more like him in stature. American Politicos are mediocre jokes in comparison. Sad mediocrities being played by the CFR Cabal.

Lavrov’s Russia is calling upon nations to shed their chains, to stop pushing their national interests to one side while listening to instructions from Washington

Russia's had enough: no more 'business as usual' with US

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov gave a remarkable press conference that was entirely ignored by western media: For Russia, there will be no more ‘business as usual’ with the European Union or the United States. A new stage of history is dawning which can develop only on the basis of equal rights and all other principles of international law.

On Tuesday, 26 January Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held his annual press conference before an audience of about 150 journalists, including the BBC correspondent Steve Rosenberg and many other well-known representatives of mainstream Western media. The purpose of this traditional event is to review issues faced by his Ministry in the past year and to give his appraisal of results achieved.

The Minister’s opening remarks were concise, lasting perhaps 15 minutes, and the remaining two hours were turned over to the floor for questions. As the microphone was passed to journalists from many of the different countries represented in the room, the discussion covered a great variety of subjects. By way of example, I would name here the negotiations over re-convening the Syrian peace talks in Geneva, David Cameron’s comments on the findings of a UK public inquest into the Litvinenko murder, the possibilities for reestablishing diplomatic relations with Georgia, the likelihood of a new ‘re-set’ with the United States, and prospects for resolving conflicting claims over the Southern Kurile islands so as to conclude a peace treaty with Japan.

To the best of my knowledge, not a single report of the event has yet appeared on major online American, French, British, German newspaper portals or television channels. This was not for lack of substance or newsworthy sound bites, including the headline ‘no business as usual’ remark. As the sharp-tongued Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented not long ago with respect to a similar news blackout that followed another major Russian press briefing: what are all these accredited Western reporters doing in Moscow if nothing gets published abroad? Do they have some other occupation?

In keeping with custom, the Ministry posted the entire 3 hour video recording on Youtube. It also posted transcripts in Russian and English on the www.mid.ru site. The Russian version takes up 26 tightly spaced printed pages. This is what I have used, since I prefer to go to the source and do my own translations when I have the option. The English version probably takes 40 pages, given the normal expansion from Russian to English in the translation process.

What I noted first in the television broadcast on Russia’s Pervy Kanal and then in the transcript was both how well prepared Lavrov was to deal with a plethora of issues and how he gave detailed answers that went on for many minutes without making reference to any notes. Secondly, it was obvious he spoke more "freely," using fewer diplomatic euphemisms than I have ever seen before. I conclude that he was given a nod by his boss, Vladimir Putin, not to hold back, to speak with perfect clarity. Given his experience as one of the longest-serving foreign ministers among the major powers and his innate intellect, Lavrov delivered what sounds at times like dictation for essays in proper written Russian.

For these reasons, I have decided to divide my treatment of the press conference into two parts. One will be Lavrov in his own words. And the other will be my conclusions about the international environment in the coming year given Russia’s basic positions. I will direct particular attention to the possible lifting of sanctions on Russia by the US and EU and how the next US administration can best prepare for relations with Russia, assuming there is no dramatic change in the thinking of American elites about the country’s role in the world before then.

Part One: Sergey Lavrov in his own words

For this first part, I have extracted several big chunks of text which characterize the overarching views on international relations of Lavrov and the Kremlin, applying their Realpolitik prism and focused primarily on US-Russian relations. This is essential if we are not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. In questions and answers dealing with all countries but one, we hear about separate issues in various locations around the world holding interest mainly for discrete national audiences with their private concerns. With respect to one country, the USA, Russia’s bilateral relations transcend the minister’s in-basket of contingencies. Indeed, the whole Russian foreign policy really is about relations with the USA. That is the logic for my choosing the first two of the three passages in quotation marks below. The third passage, on sanctions, would seem to be more about relations with the EU. I selected it because the issue of lifting sanctions will surely be a key foreign policy issue facing Russia in the first six months of this year, and behind it all looms the US position on the question. Where it was appropriate to summarize to avoid repetition of argumentation, I have done so with my own text in italics.